Tag Archives: neil fawcett

One of the highlights of my life, let alone Conference, was Neil Fawcett accompanying Kelly-Marie Blundell’s rock set at the Disco on inflatable air guitars from Primark. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being look quite so happy and fulfilled. He’s in the bottom right of this video by The Mirror’s Mikey Smith:

I’ve long said that ALDC (the Association of Lib Dem Councillors and Campaigners) is pretty much essential for anyone involved in Liberal Democrat campaigns. Of course, I would say that, because I’ve been a member of the organisation for a long time. But even with that interest declared, I’m sure most people would agree that they have loads of practical advice and campaign ideas and will be a vital part of ensuring that activists have the skills to fight future campaigns.

Today the Autumn edition of their Local Campaigner magazine arrived with members. It’s full of really interesting articles including:

How to welcome new members to the party, by Neil Fawcett

Engaging the community in developing a neighbourhood plan

Tips to make door-knocking enjoyable and productive, with high-quality contacts that are more than about voter ID

How we won a double by-election in Surrey

A commentary on the Calais crisis by Tim Pickstone, ALDC’s Chief Executive.

Following on from our April Fool’s Day prank a large yellow Duck has appeared in the Abingdon HQ for the Oxford West and Abingdon Liberal Democrat Campaign. Already he has become a big hit with the activists.

Typically for Lib Dems, a discussion ensued as to what to call the duck. A quick internet poll was held, and we now have the results:

It’s been a few months since I’ve reviewed an AD LIB. Partly that’s because I’ve never got round to doing it, although there was one month, June, I think it was, when I almost spontaneously combusted while reading it on a train. If the dominance of articles about men wasn’t bad enough, the photographs were even worse. I counted something like 26 photographs of men to 10 containing any women at all.

And then there was the recipe. A whole crayfish and a whole lobster? Do they think we’re …

Stephen Fry, once a staunch Labour supporter, has already dropped hints during this election campaign that he’s thinking of voting Lib Dem … After the rightwing press’s desperate smear tirade at the height of ‘Cleggmania’ he declared “Frankly I’m tempted to vote Lib Dem now. If we let the Telegraph and Mail win, well, freedom and Britain die.”

Regular readers of my posts about online politics will know my scepticism of the extent to which online fundraising can work in the UK on the same scale as it does in the US (e.g. because there’s a different attitude towards supporting causes by giving money rather than time in the US and because in the UK campaigns, courtesy of their parties, usual start with a significant donor lists rather than having to create ones from scratch).

However, what it certainly can do is to catch a moment of enthusiasm and to make it easy to do that which would otherwise …